In principle, the selected people are to be fully independent warriors. However, due to practical factors, many people cannot give up their wealth. In this way, they get more benefits.
The first cavalry team will serve as the most senior bodyguard of the Prince of Rus, and will also be used flexibly as a mobile legion in war.
They must be worthy of the food, clothing and weapons supplies given by the prince, and they must be worthy of the monthly silver coin allowance.
Just like the cavalry soldiers from the Sixth Banner, each of them was assigned a hectare of land and had a wife. During the busy farming period, they still had to plow in the spring and harvest in the autumn. The rest of the time, they did not have to do other side jobs and did their best. of cavalry.
As for the cavalry soldiers who came from White Tree Manor, their social status has suddenly improved. They receive a stable allowance while serving, although for them, they have to serve until they are thirty years old before they can retire and marry a wife, which is not a great disadvantage. According to the rules of the prince, these people are destined to marry late and have children later, so there are loopholes in the rules. The prince does not prohibit them from creating illegitimate children. When you retire, you will receive a land and a generous pension. Retiring at the age of thirty is not really retirement. If there is a large-scale war and the cavalry is expanded, these veteran soldiers will immediately serve as reservists.
All cavalrymen, like no other, must serve for a full ten years, and then retire with honor and become a reserve.
Their children will also receive certain preferential treatment, and the sons of cavalry will have priority to take over their father's class. It is said that according to Rurik's idea, a father who has been riding horses for ten years can teach multiple sons who are good at riding horses through family education in advance.
In this regard, Rurik intends to learn from the service system of the Roman Legion, and then make certain adjustments based on the current situation of the Principality of Rus.
The natural and simple tradition of all citizens being soldiers that the principality has long upheld must be adapted to the new era.
The mercenary team of more than 100 people, which is completely infantry, can be said to be the first fully independent standing army.
The six flag corps that were subsequently organized by the people were not standing troops. This complex army organization only has clear military significance when a real war breaks out. In a sense, this is the so-called " "One-minute men" are militiamen who are capable of fighting and can be mobilized immediately for combat.
In a complete sense, the private armed forces mobilized by Rurik only currently number only 250 people. Although the people in the mercenary team are ordered to do some logging and fishing work, it is just an economic supplement, and their source of funding almost all comes from the prince's allocation.
These people live on the stipends distributed, and all their food and clothing expenses come from the prince.
With this kind of complete economic binding, they can live a good life with no worries about food and clothing, generous treatment and a certain status. Do you really believe in a human god? A human hero blessed by Odin? Giving them enough status, money and food is the basis of loyalty.
As the saying goes, the field of management is extremely vast and seems boring.In the winter, one of Rurik's jobs was to organize the young scribes he trained to calculate the economic accounts of the huge principality.
The quiet-hearted Ella Historia cannot become a female warrior after all. She is busy working with pen and paper, and now she is busy analyzing the tax and other material output data collected by the Principality of Rus. Statistical calculations are made, and then a financial budget is made for material consumption after next spring. The amount of calculation is quite huge, and it is true that she, the quiet girl, is very happy that she has established her unique position in the power center of the principality and become further important.
Ella is the head of the scribes. The more than ten local women who studied with her also received more advanced mathematics education from the prince himself while improving their business.
This winter, the princes and princes who personally learned horse riding and slashing during the day turned into priests, teaching linear programming of advanced mathematics to the scribes.
Those boring functional equations, colorful characters, and complex formula systems were born to deal with real-life problems.
As the European powers competed for supremacy, any technology that could be used to improve combat effectiveness was adopted by the monarchs of various countries. Operations research content such as linear programming was used in logistics material mobilization calculations and military action calculations. The most direct effect was to be able to The material consumption of military expeditions was accurately budgeted, which then turned into calculations of the production and consumption of the entire country's material system, and finally reached an extreme, giving rise to a great attempt - planned economy.
The total number of people living in the principality is 100,000, but the actual tightly controlled population is only 60,000, including more than 10,000 children. This is an extremely limited economy and a rapidly developing economy.
Although it is not enough to create a functional department called the "Planning Committee", the principality has a small population and has established a calculation team that can basically calculate the people's demand and consumption of major bulk materials, so as to Provide an official price for supplies and ensure that the "oats-based" economic system can continue to operate safely.
Of course, the principality only has this small population. In today's bad era in Europe, a kingdom of 100,000 people with strong organization and combat effectiveness has no chance of running sideways on the European continent. question.
Just like the Ostrogothic Kingdom that was defeated by Belisara three hundred years ago, the country could only mobilize 25,000 men from all over the country. Sexual extinction is instantaneous destruction.
The Principality of Ross is facing the same possibility, and the Principality is simply unable to withstand a major defeat!
Except, the priority for combat is not soldiers mobilized by civilians, but paid professional soldiers.
Looking around, except for Denmark, which is obviously in internal strife, and the Frankish Kingdom, which is even more in internal strife, the Principality of Rus has no strong enemies under its eyes. In the past few years, thousands of troops have been assembled to launch a war that bets on the fate of the country. , at least not possible in the foreseeable future.
The principality should take advantage of this period of opportunity to develop comprehensive strength andThe standing army must be further developed, but its numbers must be controlled.
"Build a cavalry flag force with a strength of 600 people. A small team of ten people, three small teams and one squadron, and ten small teams of one hundred people. Six hundred-man teams are combined with the flag team's command center to form a The entire flag team. So who will be the flag captain? Well, they have to compete with each other."
The great plan is in Rurik's mind. According to his current situation. It is possible to support a thousand-man off-duty standing army with sufficient financial resources, but it is not appropriate to continue to expand the scale.
At the end of November, the selected eighty cavalry began to increase their training in spear thrusting.
It’s still the old rule. If you release your spear before it hits the target, you will be whipped. The burning taste is not pleasant.
The snowy wilderness outside the city is very cold. According to the habits of the Pecheneg people, people and horses should not run around in this cold weather. The right way is to hide in a warm stable. These Turkic horses are generally cold-resistant. After all, in the Ukrainian-Southern Russian grasslands where they gallop, the lowest temperature in winter can reach -20°C. Now each one has grown an extremely thick winter mane, making each one look more beautiful. To be fluffy and fat.
The horse's food treatment became better due to its participation in training, and Rurik naturally got more horse manure. Horse manure is a treasure and cannot be thrown away. The fermented compost can be used to fertilize the fields next year.
The horse is breathing out white mist, and the rider with the infantry's spear is also breathing out white mist.
There is a pillar directly in front of the rider, with a leather ball nearly the size of a football standing on it. Two large squirrel skins were sewn together and stuffed with large amounts of hay to create a cavalry thrust target.
Look! The young cavalry galloped forward and charged with all his strength. His spear was flattened, and the spearhead instantly hit the ball! He gently pulled the reins, and the charging horse slowly stopped. It spun three times on the snow and stopped. He raised his spear high again to signal his success to all onlookers.
In combat, the cavalry will use spearheads that are easy to break. Any hit to the enemy will cause fatal injuries. What they are training now is to hit the ball target accurately. Everyone must be trained to be able to do this easily. thing.
After seven full days of training on spear thrusting, both men and horses were actually exhausted.
However, after three days of rest, the much-anticipated riding and shooting training finally began!
Even Rurik himself participated on horseback.
Kagan, the short Prince of Pecheneg, is now dressed like a Russian warrior, and he does not feel that the classic blue stripes on his underwear are incompatible.
He no longer tied his hair in strange braids on the back of his head, but simply followed the example of the prince and kept a "ponytail".
Not just him, a large group of cavalry trainees are either born with straight or curly hair, and now they generally wear rough "horsetails", which are said to be as elegant and brave as galloping horses.
Many people have learned archery. For the time being, there is no beautiful recurve bow, so they use hunting bows such as short wooden bows instead.
The finger-wrenching banishing technique is universal in the principality, but on weekdays everyone is accustomed to placing the arrow on the left side, just like a warrior who always holds a sword in his right hand.
Kagan stood in the stirrups and declared to everyone: "The arrow should be nocked on the right side, right on the thumb of your left hand holding the bow. Only in this way, you can take out the arrow from the quiver and nock it on The bow string can be used to shoot arrows immediately. A good archer can shoot ten arrows in a very short time..."
Kagan simply gave a practical demonstration. Not to mention the shooting accuracy, he did what he claimed. All ten arrows were shot in a very short time, and the whole movement was smooth and flowing.
Of course it is possible to shoot quickly if the arrow is nocked on the right side, but how can an archer who is accustomed to the left nock adapt quickly to a sudden change in the bow nock position? Nowadays, all the cavalry, including Rurik himself, are the ultimate beginners in mounted shooting.
The right-hand bow was a little awkward, so the riders simply dismounted and fired randomly at the target with the right-hand bow. They did not seek accuracy, but just wanted to master a new shooting feel.
It just so happens that the horse can also rest further.
The archery training has been going on for many days. Even with a low-pound short wooden bow, you have to shoot up to 300 times a day. Who doesn’t have sore arms?
Finally, it was time for the mounted shooting test to demonstrate the success of the training. At the beginning, everyone just sat steadily on the horse, standing sideways and shooting at the target.
Those handsome boys from the Sixth Flag Team who have received adequate archery training have adapted to the new archery model and have the highest target rate.
The worst thing is those sons of boyar nobles from allied estates who are forced to serve as soldiers. The so-called sons of nobles are just stupid sons of landlords. Their poor archery skills are indeed embarrassing, which is not surprising. A group of boys who may have been destined to have no chance of hunting are now cavalry. They are beginners in holding bows and archery, and now they know nothing about riding and archery. Their inherent arrogance was completely crushed by the ruthless reality. Fortunately, their white backs were not bruised by the whip.
As a whole, they looked like they were riding high and stretched their hips, and Rurik couldn't help but pout and look sad.
Because, his own horse riding and archery skills also appear to stretch his hips.
No one will accuse the prince of poor skills, because the group performance is not good.
Some people expressed frustration. At the critical moment, Kagan explained optimistically: "Don't think about learning to ride and shoot in a few days. We Pechenegs learned to ride at the age of six. Take your father's arrows and practice riding archery. A good warrior needs to train until he is twenty. It takes more than ten years of riding and archery training to cultivate a superb riding archer!"
Kagan seems to be exaggerating, but it also illustrates the fact that a mounted archer cannot be achieved quickly.
So, Rurik decided to cheat.
It was an ordinary winter morning. The sun is bright and dazzling today, the air is dry and cold, and the wind is as sharp as a knife and piercing my face.
Everyone gathered in front of the young cavalry's dormitory, and a large number of wooden-arm crossbows were placed on the ground.
Rurik lectured in public with his hands behind his back: "My brother Kagan said that cavalry archers cannot be quick, and this is obviously correct. Look at the crossbows in front of you, and go get what you like."
Everyone is quite confused. Since the prince has ordered it, let’s carry it out.
They got crossbows and listened to the prince's orders: "After all, the purpose of mounted archery is to launch arrows into the enemy's chest and neck. For this purpose, crossbows can also be used. I can't wait for you for ten years." Later, you will become an excellent mounted archer. At that time, you will all retire. Now, if you are riding a horse and shooting with a crossbow, you should first follow this training."
They went to the stable to pick up their horses. The unique gesture displayed in front of Kagan really surprised the Pecheneg people present, including the Pecheneg captains of each team.
"Is this your unique bow?" Kagan said while stroking the crossbow that Rurik wanted to play with.
"This is our standard weapon."
"A bow placed horizontally, and it can actually..."
"Yes." Ruri Kemu said with a face: "It's like your arm is always pulling the bowstring. You can shoot when you want. You can even aim at the target and shoot again. A fool can become a marksman."
"I... I don’t believe it.” This was the first time Kagan saw the unique bow of the Russian people, which was a heavy blow to his pride. ,
What do you mean? After all, Kagan did not really see the majesty of the Ross army, but he only had some general and fallacious understanding of the Ross army.
Even a simple saddle has a relatively hard structural protrusion at the front end, which happens to be a fulcrum. It can be used to tie the reins or to set the hoop of the crossbow. superior. The power of the wooden arm crossbow is limited, and it only shoots ordinary light arrows. After all, it is a modification of a short wooden bow. It only adds some tendons to the bow arms to barely increase the strength.
"I will show you an arrow on horseback."
Rurik took back his crossbow and operated it in front of Kagan. The iron ring covered the protrusion, he pulled the bow string with both hands, leaned back, and the string caught the mechanism. An arrow is then inserted into the groove and is slightly held in place by a steel spring at the tail. This kind of crossbow was designed with a shoulder stock, and Rurik fired accurately at the hanging squirrel target not far away like a musket.
"Ah! I actually hit it!" Kagan was shocked, and asked a soul question almost at the same time: "Brothers, it seems that you have many of these..."
"It's a crossbow."
"I want to buy it."
"You want to buy it?!" Rurik was shocked. It stands to reason that people want to buy it. It can be sold, but the transaction has been discussed. Why not get a big one?
Rurik replied decisively: "Just trade your recurve bow with mine, a recurve bow for a crossbow."
"This..."
“Are you hesitating? It’s difficultIs that a wonderful deal for you? ”
Rurik suddenly behaved very lively, and Kagan could see that his sworn brother really liked recurve bows. According to the rules of the steppe, brothers were treated politely in Rus, and they could do whatever they wanted. Give me some gifts.
Kagan thought for a moment and slapped his thigh: "Then I will exchange thirty recurve bows with you. ”
“Deal! Just not now. "Rurik sighed softly, looked at his brothers on horseback and held crossbows, then looked at the target set up, and then stared into Kagan's eyes: "Indeed, I can't complete the quick-fire of mounted archery. If we use our Crossbow, should be much better. "
"It doesn't matter. Kagan shrugged: "If you can use a sling to shoot stones to kill the enemy, no one thinks there is anything wrong with riding a horse and wielding a sling." "
A crossbow cavalry was born? No! Whether the cavalry uses crossbows, recurve bows, or even fire blunderbuss, they are all tactical aids and a means of disrupting the enemy's array. The main weapon of the cavalry is still the cavalry spear and saber. At least the crossbow can make a group of cavalry beginners become good shooters immediately. Don't be fanciful if you expect to use rapid fire to implement "fire suppression".
The squirrel target began to hit the target frequently, and the cavalry holding the crossbow passed by quickly. They could better seize the opportunity to pull the trigger.
In Rurik's view, he dreamed of having the initial combat effectiveness. The cavalry unit has been successful. Although they have not experienced any actual combat tests, they have at least shown fairly good abilities on the training ground.
There is no need to ask too extreme of them. This group of young people has only been training for a month at best. , they have mastered horse riding, horse riding chopping, riding spear thrusting, and riding crossbow shooting. Although they are not good at it, they have enough time to improve it.
It can be said that in the eyes of ordinary people, the Principality of Ross successfully gave birth to a team. The majestic cavalry unit is actually a great honor for the principality.